Operation 13
by Mint
Summary: Zack, Cloud and Sephiroth join forces to go on a mission in the Shinra Mansion as some disturbances have been reported there.


**Operation 13**

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**Day 1**

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_The SOLDIERS have arrived on the field._

Zack Fair, 20 years old, 1st class SOLDIER. Was discovered by the Turks beating a monster with a stick at the age of 13. Since then he has joined Shinra to train and become a 1st class which he successfully achieved at the age of 16. Is known to have great strength and ability to fight, though it has been noticed a tendency for distraction. Has a cheerful personality and unstoppable energy. Marked as one of the best warriors Shinra has ever had.

Cloud Strife, 18 years old, 2nd class SOLDIER. Joined Shinra at his own will when he was 14. Is on this mission as a test to become a 1st class. Was mentored by SOLDIER Zack Fair for the last year. His parents were killed in a fire at a young age, reason that most likely contributed for his quiet personality. He tends to distance himself from social activities and focus only on his job. A promising young SOLDIER.

Sephiroth, 23 years old, top ranking SOLDIER officer. Mysterious and powerful, joined Shinra at the age of 10. Not much is known about his past. Has extremely destructive power but has great control over it. Is known to possess a quiet personality and focuses on completing every mission as he is ordered to. His work is often completed clean and direct with no side effects.

"Are you sure these are the best men we have for this mission, this group put together?" The director closed the pasty-colored files of the three SOLDIERS and looked above his glasses at his secretary, resting his elbows on his desk and interlocking his fingers.

"These are the very best we possess sir." The secretary answered standing upright in front of his desk. "All of Shinra pride is in that squad."

"Humm…" The director mumbled thoughtfully. "Aren't two of these men known to have thrown an alcohol party at the dormitories once?"

"Eerr.." The secretary blushed and swallowed dry. "Yes but the situation was well resolved. No SOLDIERS are better qualified for this job as these three, sir."

"Very well." The director leaned back on his chair and sighed. "Keep me informed about the reports they send. This is a very sensitive and dangerous mission… that's why we need the greatest we have. I can't afford any problems regarding."

"Yes sir. Will do." The secretary nodded and bumping one ankle to the other one saluted the director and left his office.

"Yes… I can't allow any disturbance." The director fixed his glasses on his nose and stared at the single pictures of the SOLDIERS clipped onto the files on his desk.

* * *

"What did you write on your application form about your weakness again? I think I didn't hear it clearly!" Cloud Strife asked in disbelief at his friend beside him.

"The opposite sex!" Zack Fair answered grinning. "What was I supposed to write? I don't have any physical weaknesses! I honestly answered what I believe it's my weakness! You know I can't resist a beautiful lady!"

"You have got to be kidding me! Did they say anything about it?" Cloud asked as they walked toward Nibelheim after the helicopter had left them outside the town.

"Apparently not… So it must have been valid." Zack said.

"Don't you have a girlfriend somewhere in Midgar?" Sephiroth asked, him too looking unbelievably at his comrade.

"Well yeah! Aerith. I wrote that before I started dating her!" Zack turned his head to answer Sephiroth. "But I think I would have written the same thing if it was today. Aerith is still the opposite sex!"

"Unbelievable!" Cloud threw his arms to the air, open-mouthed.

"Oh wow. Twelve o'clock you guys." Zack exclaimed as they approached the town's entrance where a young raven-haired girl stood waiting for them. Long legs under a mini skirt, long black hair waving slightly with the breeze, a cowboy hat hanging loosely by her back and tied around her neck.

"Don't you even think about it you pervert." Cloud knocked him in the head. "That's Tifa, my sort of… friend."

"Hey relax man! I'm committed remember? I was just warning you, for you." Zack laughed at Cloud but thought he wouldn't mind having Aerith there too waiting for him.

"Oh right…" Sephiroth stared at Nibelheim. "This is your hometown isn't it?"

"Yeah…" Cloud nodded once, seriously now. It was hard to return after all, he mused.

"Hello everyone!" Tifa greeted them cheerfully and bowed her head slightly. "I'll be your guide while you're here."

"Nice to meet you Tifa." Zack greeted smirking at Cloud who grimaced and shook his head.

"Hello there Cloud." Her chocolate brown eyes looked at the blond SOLDIER who scratched the back of his head embarrassedly. "It has been a long time… It's good to see you again."

"Humm guys. Can you give me a minute?" Cloud asked. Sephiroth nodded and Zack winked at him before they walked further into town to wait for them ahead.

"So… 1st class SOLDIER huh?" Tifa asked, smiling. "You've become what you wanted."

"Yeah… I mean, no! Technically, not yet. I'm here on this mission to try to upgrade to 1st class." Cloud avoided looking at her eyes as he spoke.

"Well… I'm glad for you Cloud, I am." Tifa said.

"EEEE-HAAAW!" They heard Zack yell from where he stood with Sephiroth who lifted one hand to his head and shook it. Zack had his hands on his mouth like a megaphone toward them and grinned brightly.

"I think he's making fun of my cowboy hat." Tifa turned her attention at the spiky black-haired man shouting.

"No…" Cloud's face turned a faint pink. "He's making fun of me, trust me." _He will pay for this._ Cloud repeated in his head.

"We should go then." Tifa started walking. "You must be eager to start right?"

"Yeah… Something like that." Cloud followed her. "Hey Tifa…"

"Hum?" She paused and turned to look at him.

"It's good to see you too." Cloud passed by her as she froze on her feet.

"So… Are you spending the night?" Tifa finally asked them when she snapped back to reality.

"If things go accordingly, that won't be necessary." Sephiroth answered. "Could you take us to the Shinra Mansion? Our business will be there."

"They finally sent someone to investigate what's going on there." Tifa tilted her head for them to follow her and they walked to the outskirts of the town where the huge house was located.

"What do you mean?" Zack asked.

"There's some strange activity there. Some people spotted someone looking out the window several times but that Mansion has been empty for a long time. The gates are even locked so no one can possibly go in or out of it." Tifa explained. "Sometimes in the night, we hear some weird noises coming from there, the kids are afraid to go near that house. It gets pretty scary, it's like it is haunted or something."

"Well don't worry!" Zack rested his arm on Cloud's shoulders. "That's why we're here. To investigate it, right Cloud?"

"I guess." Cloud replied uncomfortably.

"This is it." Tifa stopped in front of the graded iron gates of the Shinra Mansion. "I'll be going now to let you work. Let me know if you need anything." She waved them goodbye and left down the road toward the town.

"I think those last words were meant for you." Zack teased his blond friend.

"Would you stop that?" Cloud bumped him in the arm with a fist. "You are the most irritating person on the face of Gaia. I don't know how your girlfriend puts up with you."

"Knock it off you two!" Sephiroth broke. "Haven't you guys wondered why they didn't give us any more details about us coming here?"

"They said there has been strange movement in there and we needed to see what was going on." Zack said.

"Exactly. That's all they said. This place was used as the setting of Professor Hojo's experiments. With all the madness he created here I wouldn't be surprised if it really was haunted by the souls of the ones who served as guinea pigs here." Sephiroth continued and stared at the huge mansion behind the gates.

The walls were old and a little fended; there were holes of missing paint and some broken windows. In one of the windows a dark shutter hang by a strap of wood from its edge. Apart from that, the magnificent huge structure stood tall on the ground almost inviting them in.

"Tifa wasn't kidding though. The house is spooky, it almost looks alive. There's a strange energy coming from it, do you guys feel it too?" Zack asked shuddering.

"Yeah…" Cloud whispered. "Who has the keys?"

"What keys, I didn't know we had to have keys." Zack lifted the chains holding the gates shut and pulled them trying to break them but they didn't flinch.

"Move." Sephiroth said and Zack stepped out of the way in time to see Sephiroth's long thin sword slithering down in the air in a straight line. One second later the chains broke by the middle and fell heavily on the ground letting the gate doors free and open.

"Effective." Zack applauded. "Who needs keys when you have a masamune?"

"Let's go." The silver-haired tall SOLDIER went past the gates first followed closely by the other two. As they crossed the small abandoned garden before they reached the wooden stairs leading to the inside, they couldn't help noticing the thick vegetation of weeds growing wildly up the walls of the house and around the path toward it.

"It wouldn't hurt them doing a little gardening." Zack shook his foot as some of the wild weeds were starting to tangle around his ankle. "Geez."

When the three reached the door, Sephiroth lifted his hand to place it on the doorknob but as soon as his hand was close enough for him to touch it the door opened by itself with a clicking noise, allowing them in.

"Wow, the power of the mind." Zack exclaimed smiling at Sephiroth.

"I didn't open it." Sephiroth shook his head. "It opened by itself."

"Yeah right." Zack passed by Sephiroth and into the house. "You're just trying to scare us. But it won't work, we're used to thes— hey!" Zack drew his sword from his back and went into fighting position. "We have company indeed."

The two pumpkin-headed ghosts hovered above their heads dashing down to attack them. With one single slash of his long sword Sephiroth finished them off.

"Aww man!" Zack cried. "It's no fun going on missions with you! You take away all the excitement!"

"Could this be the activity they were talking about? Monsters?" Cloud, who didn't have to move a muscle, asked approaching his comrades.

"I doubt it." Sephiroth answered putting away his sword by his waist. "They wouldn't send _us_ if that was the case."

"Would you look around at this place?" Zack called them and so they did. They were standing in a large entrance which its soil was covered with velvet red carpeting, by the right corner was a wooden staircase leading upstairs and to their left was a double-door closed. Under the stairs was another door which probably led to the basement. The window across from them let the daylight illuminate the room and they could see particles of dust floating in the air where the light came through.

"Where do we start?" Cloud asked.

"Wait for me here, I'll go check this one room and then we can move on." Zack turned left and opened the wooden door. He went inside and immediately his eyes got a glimpse of someone's silhouette by the corner of the room. But as he blinked to make sure he had seen something, there was no one there. Only an empty armchair, a chandelier, one worn-out desk and a fireplace on the wall. _I'm sure I saw someone there._

"Anything?" He heard Cloud call from the other room.

"Humm… no." Zack answered loudly and turned around to go meet them. "But there's definitely something going on here. I thought I… no, I'm sure I saw someone in there."

"What do you mean?" Sephiroth asked suspiciously.

"As soon as I opened the door, something disappeared by the corner."

"You mean like a ghost?"

"Maybe, I don't know. I thought ghosts didn't exist."

"Let's continue." Sephiroth said. "You two go upstairs; I'll go take a look at the basement."

"You sure you want to split up." Zack asked.

"If you need anything, just scream." Sephiroth said walking toward the door under the stairs but as he opened it, he stopped to look back at them. "And that doesn't mean just you Cloud."

"Oh-oh!" Zack laughed remembering his joke on what Tifa had told them a few minutes ago. "He has humour after all!"

"And I wanted to join Shinra." Cloud rolled his eyes. "Why would they send me here to become a 1st class if there's nothing to do here?"

"We don't know that yet." Zack answered him. "One thing we always have to be sure of is not to rush to any conclusions."

When they climbed up the stairs, something downstairs appeared looking up at them. Zack pulled Cloud by the shoulder so he could see it too. The creature was human-shaped but covered in what looked like dark blood. Its mouth opened up into one empty hole.

"What the—" Cloud started and crinkled his nose. A pair of red eyes glittered in the light as it stared at them. It took one step forward in their direction but as it did it vanished into thin air. "What was that?"

"I have no idea man but this is giving me the creeps." Zack answered. Upstairs was a long corridor with the same carpet under their feet as the main living room had at the entrance and several bedroom doors filled the walls as they walked across it.

When they entered one of the bedrooms, they noticed a small piece of paper on top of one chest of drawers. But when they picked it up and turned it around the reflecting paper showed them a disturbing picture of someone that looked a lot like Sephiroth laying on some green liquid and wired from head to toe in between black cables. His eyes were closed and had red marks under them.

"Wow." Zack almost dropped the picture with the shock. "What does this mean?"

"Do you think we should show it to him?" Cloud asked.

"We're not even sure it's him." Zack said thoughtfully. "I wouldn't want to watch something like this if it was me." He opened one of the drawers and placed the picture randomly inside before he closed it. When they heard Sephiroth call them, they rushed out of the room and down the stairs.

"Found anything interesting?" The silver-haired man asked.

"No, nothing." Zack and Cloud shook their heads quickly.

"Are you sure?" Sephiroth insisted. They nodded exchanging looks. "Very well, tomorrow we'll come back. I found some documents in the basement I wanted you guys to take a look at."

"Tomorrow?" Zack asked. "I thought this was a one day thing!"

"They want us to find a specific paper." Sephiroth said checking his cell-phone for new messages. "I need your help searching for it as the room in the basement is a little bit messy. We'll spend the night in town and come back tomorrow."

"Hear that?" Zack elbowed Cloud grinning.

"Stop that." Cloud narrowed his eyes at him.

"I'll have time to call my Aerith then." Zack smiled as they walked out of the house unaware that they were being watched.

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**Note**: Hi! So this story is meant to last for about 3 to 4 chapters, it's a small story focused only on one mission in the Shinra mansion I thought about writing. It has a little bit of horror, a little bit of suspense and a little bit of humor. I really hope you liked this chapter, I promise things will make more sense and evolve on the next chapter. Tell me what you think please.. Thanks for reading!


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